Fox Senator Theater

Leonard Starks was involved in the project that eventually became the Fox Senator Theater at least three years before the movie house opened. When the project was announced in the June 1921 issue of the trade publication Engineering and Contracting, it was to be called the Paramount Theater and Starks was already the lead architect. Though a native of California, Starks had been working for some time in New York City in the office of theater architect Thomas Lamb. A thumbnail biography of Leonard Starks from the Historic Fresno web site doesn’t mention the Paramount specifically, but tells of the intention of the Famous Players corporation to build a chain of theaters on the west coast. The proposed Paramount was undoubtedly one of these. Famous Players had contracted with Lamb’s office for architectural services, and Starks was to return to California to oversee design and construction. When the plans for the chain fell through, Starks resigned from Lamb’s firm and set up his own practice in Sacramento. Starks eventually joined E.C. Hemmings to form the Architectural firm Hemmings and Starks in 1923. Unfortunately their partnership was short lived and Hemmings died the following year. The Fox Senator Theater was one of the few major projects they completed together.